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After writing the previous blogpost on audience and reading a post by classmate Michael Yap on minimizing design risk, it suddenly hit me: From a design standpoint, I’ve been taking a rather risky approach to my thesis project. Here’s why I decided to take that approach, and what I am learning from it.

What happens when you get so psyched up about how awesome everything is going to be when it’s built that you jump right in? You get overwhelmed, that’s what. And in the end, the lesson is: you still have to start at the core.

A productive meeting with my new advisor David Womack prompts me to think about the tension between thinking and making. When is a good time to stop asking “Are you sure?” or “What if…” and to just start building the darn thing?

I have created a research and development plan! The first person I showed this to (Frank) thought this was rather promising. The second person I showed this to (a developer at a startup) laughed and said to build in an extra 10 months, just in case. So… I guess we’ll see how this goes. But here it is!

For my thesis, I would like to use commonly available technologies to increase dialogue around and awareness of the foods we eat. To accomplish this, I would like to build an online social cooking experience to help people cook more, and through this, engage more deeply with their food.

You get a feeling that there’s an interesting avenue to explore, a problem that might someday lead you to a solution, but then you get distracted by more pressing matters and the hunch disappears. So [...] write everything down.Steven Johnson,Where Good Ideas Come From